Interesting Links for 25-04-2016

[andrewducker]

"Malachite is a poisonous mineral. Please do not fuck the malachite stalactite" (tags: funny geology sex ) An issue with the plumbing. In the style of Poe. (tags: poetry funny ) How Game Of Thrones Ends Based On Computer Simulations (tags: gameofthrones games simulation funny ) Sonos on the cheap: How Chromecast Audio breathes new life into old

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

ChromeCast Audio sounds neat.

I'm already full on Sonos - I don't think I have any need for new speakers.

Ah, I lie. The two small speakers that I would use for sound sound with my soundbar are in service in other rooms. I might, therefore, require two of the smaller units.

Were I to have a second house would I go Sonos or ChromeCast Audio. Probably Sonos. I don't have a built up collection of old speakers to press in to service and I'd prefer to have the flexibility of being able to shift units from one house to the next.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'm sticking with Sonos too - and just bought a fourth unit, so now I have one in both bedrooms, the kitchen, and the living room (through the amp).

But it would be nice to have options that worked together, so that if someone bought out a waterproof unit (which Sonos doesn't) I could make it work as part of the set.

[danieldwilliam]

That is the missing piece for me. I require a bathroom rated battery powered unit to go in my bathroom.

[gonzo21]

Ebay definitely has a problem, you'd be a fool to sell high value goods on there, there's just too much scamming amongst buyers. It's rapidly turning into a cheap dodgy Chinese goods marketplace. And I'm not sure that long-term that's really what they want their business to be about. (Even if the profits have been good in the short term.)

And weirdly Ebay will protect the sellers but only if the sellers are big dodgy Chinese retailers, or the big brands like Tesco Outlet or Argos. If you have a problem with an item bought from a big seller, you're out of luck because Ebay will protect them. But if you're a small seller? Ebay will chuck you under a bus quicker than you can blink.

They've done a pretty good job of driving away a lot of the small sellers from their website. Which is sad, because the small sellers were what made Ebay.

Nice of them to finally admit they've got a problem though. Sellers have only been telling them that for the last 10 years. :)

[octopoid_horror]

Buyers have a weird sense of entitlement these days too. When I was clearing out a bunch of stuff, more often than not if I listed the item as an auction, I'd get a message from someone saying "how much do you want for it?" and asking me to either set a buy it now price, or sell it to them off ebay

[gonzo21]

Yeah, there was a phase where Ebay forced sellers to include 'Best Offer' on all their listings. And that was just a catastrophe. The number of times I had to ignore people who would offer me say, £20 for an item I had listed with a BiN of £50. Or even worse. One guy offered me £5 for something I had listed at £75.

I ended up putting in my listings 'Do not send me a best offer, the listed price is the selling price.'

Buyers definitely prefer BiNs compared to auctions though. They want to see something, and buy it there and then. Nobody has patience to wait for an auction to end anymore. :)

Ebay is still a bit cheaper than amazon though, I mean as a seller I'd never list stuff on Amazon marketplace just because Amazons fee scale is way worse than EBays.

[octopoid_horror]

My assumption is that the push towards branded (or off-brand) products from large companies and the favourable terms they got, the awkwardness of listing/selling these days and the final realisation that the only people making money from those "Make money on ebay!" books were the people selling the books were all factors in pushing away individual sellers.

[steer]

Thanks for including the link. :-)

[andrewducker]

Thanks for writing it!

[weighbridge1]

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